Home life in Hellas, Greece and the Greeks - eBooks4Greeks.gr

FAITH AND FOLK-LORE 247where we should say, it is raining. In times ofdrought a little girl, who must be an orphan,as being more likely to obtain the blessings ofHeaven, is clad in a vesture of leaves and crownedwith flowers. Accompanied by other childrensinging as they go, Perperouna, so she is namedfor the occasion, makes the round of the village,the inmates of every household sprinkling a fewdrops of water on her head. This quaint andpretty form of invocation is the prayer for rain. Itwas formerly a common practice to make passesin the air with a black-handled knife during astorm in order to " cut it." There appears to bepeculiar virtue in the black handle, for a blackhandledknife placed under the pillow is accounteda specific against nightmare.These beliefs and customs, the legacy of remoteages, do not hinder the Greeks from devotedattachment to theirChurch, which holds the firstplace in their hearts. A Greek does not easilychange hisnationality and there are very few instancesof his having done so, but in none of thesehas he changed his creed. He has always remainedfaithful to that, although in the days ofTurkish rule, when the Porte sold the Churchdignities to the highest bidder, the clergy werenot always the friends of the people.In too manycases the higher clergy were rapacious and oppressive,purchasing impunity from Constantinople.They vindicated themselves nobly, however, bytheir conduct during the War of Independence.